1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems which monitor patient movement and, more particularly, to systems which can be used to alert a caregiver when a patient is ambulatory.
2. Description of the Related Art
Care facilities, such as hospitals, long-term care facilities, and elderly care facilities, have many patients that present a “fall-risk.” For example, some elderly patients are still ambulatory but are unstable on their feet. If such patients fall from a standing position or while getting out of bed they can break bones, e.g., a hip or rib, or otherwise significantly injure themselves. Such patients do not always follow the instructions of caregivers and may attempt to get out of their bed or walk unassisted despite contrary health-care instructions.
A variety of monitoring systems are known for such “fall-risk” patients. For example, pads which are capable of detecting weight may be placed on the bed and generate an alarm signal when a weight is removed from the pad, e.g., when a patient moves off of the pad. Such pads, however, have not always proven to be effective for lighter weight patients. Some such pads have also been known to have only a short useful life before becoming worn and unreliable.
It is also known to use motion detectors to determine when a fall-risk patient has exited a bed. Many of the systems employing motion detectors can be relatively expensive and many care facilities find the deployment of such systems to be cost-prohibitive.
While known patient monitors can effectively alert caregivers when a fall-risk patient is exiting a bed, further improvements in such monitoring systems are desirable.